MAYHEW – Courtney Rigdon’s family ties have made her an honorary East Mississippi Community College Lion her entire life. But she didn’t officially join the pride until her father was nearly crushed to death in an ATV accident in 2006.
Friday, Rigdon was among the students who particpated in EMCC’s Golden Triangle campus Fall Graduation. She also participated in a pinning ceremony Thursday where she received the Nightingale Award, the RN program’s highest award.
Growing up, Rigdon had strong family ties to EMCC, but chose to attend the University of Mississippi upon graduation. She loved her time in Oxford, where she joined Kappa Delta Sorority, but her life was brutally interrupted during a visit home in September 2006.
While out riding ATV’s with family and friends in Kemper County, Courtney’s father was seriously injured. At the hospital, doctors told Rigdon and her family that her father had suffered major damage to the organs in his abdomen and was bleeding internally. He was placed in a medically induced coma and spent the next two-and-a-half months in the intensive care unit, where his family stayed, too.
It was during her family’s time in the hospital that Rigdon decided to go into nursing. She says the level of care her family received was so deep that they remain in touch with the nurses who treated her father, who was able to recover from his injuries.
After leaving Ole Miss to be closer to her family, Courtney spent several years working for her father before enrolling in EMCC’s Registered Nursing program in 2012. She now works in a doctor’s office and has completed her preceptorship at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Columbus.
“It’s been a tough program at EMCC. It was a huge adjustment coming to EMCC after Ole Miss, but being close to family is what I needed,” she said. “I’ve made some amazing friends through this nursing program and I’ll cherish every memory I’ve made at EMCC.”
Courtney plans to one day move to a trauma ward in a larger city where the action will be non-stop.
“I love that aspect of nursing,” she said. “I get a sense of reward when I help save someone’s life. And with nursing you do that every day, but I like to see it as much as possible.”
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